US dollar movement likely on a busy day for data releases

The US dollar had another mixed day yesterday, with little intrinsic data to sway investors one way or another. Gains were seen against sterling thanks to weak data from the UK, but this ground was largely lost throughout the afternoon. For the US, the biggest release was the Consumer Confidence figure. This came out a little behind expectations, but had a muted impact as investors remained tentative ahead of today’s much more influential events.

Firstly, the ever important labour markets will provide an independent non-farm employment change figure, a good indicator ahead of Friday’s official variant. Following this, we will receive reports of the advance Gross Domestic Product growth figure for the first quarter, which investors will look to for indications of the health and growth of the economy as a whole. Following this broad indicator, the evening brings the latest meeting of the US Federal Reserve. While nothing drastic is expected, continued tapering of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing programme is likely to relieve more pressure on the dollar. Investors will also look for any other hints that may sway the future prospects of the dollar.

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US Dollar recovers from early slump

The US dollar started the week with mixed fortunes, as internal and external results drove the markets. Firstly, it plummeted to fresh lows against sterling to reach the lowest point since November 2009. This came mainly thanks to UK optimism, alongside significant mergers and acquisitions talk between US and UK companies. The dollar fought back in the afternoon, as a much better than expected pending home sales figure gave it some strength.

Today there is just one influential release from stateside, which comes in the form of Consumer Confidence data from the Conference Board. Alongside this, investors will be looking forward to tomorrow as the most important day of the week for the dollar this week, with a statement from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and growth results due.

Very busy week for US data so expect rapid movements in dollar

The US dollar finished off last week in subdued fashion, with no significant movements as events were limited. The only slight point of interest was the revised Consumer Sentiment from the University of Michigan. This figure came out ahead of expectations to give the dollar a little light at the end of a mixed week, but was ultimately little changed on the day.

This week’s influential data starts today with pending home sales, following on from last week’s home sales data. Tomorrow’s main release is the consumer confidence figure from the Conference Board, prior to Wednesday’s barrage of figures. On this day, we will hear about the ever-important independent non-farm employment change data, ahead of the official figure.

US dollar has a steady week

The US dollar started this shortened week in a mixed fashion. The existing home sales figure showed a better than anticipated level, but this didn’t stop the dollar nearing its recent five year lows against sterling. However, the US currency did manage to reach a two-week high against the euro. Fortunes reversed on Wednesday, as new home sales came out worse than expected, but the dollar appreciated against sterling thanks to uncertainty from the UK. Yesterday then saw a varied outcome, as the two main data points came out either side of expectations: figures for the core durable goods orders were significantly ahead of expectations, but this was counteracted by worse-than-expected unemployment claims data.

US dollar strengthens slightly

Following a recent tough run against sterling, where it fell to five-year lows, the US dollar recovered yesterday after minutes from the latest meeting of the UK’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) showed uncertainty amongst policy makers. This strength against sterling came in spite of an unexpected drop in new home sales to the lowest level in 8 months. Following impressive existing home sales data on Tuesday however, this poor result was largely ignored in the markets as the dollar held its ground against its major currency partners.

Today sees the release of unemployment claims and core durable goods orders from the US, both of which have the capacity to impact markets if they deviate from forecast levels.